1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a woven fabric belt device, e.g., an endless screen belt for paper and pulp machines, a connecting device being provided at at least one end of the woven fabric belt, said connecting device being connectable to another connecting device of the same belt or of another one through a detachable connecting means, a number of certain longitudinal yarns being removed from the fabric along a section assigned to the end of the woven fabric belt.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Detachable connections between the two front ends of a woven fabric belt or between the ends of two different woven fabric belts such as, for example, conveying belts, endless screen belts or the like, are well known and are described in DE 28 10 72 C, DE 2 059 021 A, DE 2 338 263 A, FR 2 145 365 A and EP 564 436 A for example. The connecting devices for these detachable connections are configured to form individual coupling rings, screw helices or seaming loops. The coupling rings or screw helixes can be sewn to the end of the woven fabric or woven into it, whereas seaming loops may be formed either by the very structure of the woven fabric or by weaving individual longitudinal yarns back into the woven fabric in a weave conforming manner. Suitable joining members are pin wires which, after joining the connection devices together, are threaded through the rings, screw helixes or seaming loops of said connection devices. The pin wire can be straight-lined or spiral-shaped and have a round or oval cross-section.
The connecting devices of many of the known woven fabric joints suffer from wear, which may affect the durability of the belt, more specifically when the woven fabric joint is subjected to high mechanical load or to increased dirt counts. To protect a detachable connection of the type mentioned herein above, FR 2 145 365 A suggests to provide the connection devices with a flat cover fastened to one end of the woven fabric. Although such a cover protects the joint, it also has disadvantages, one of them being that the cost of production increases as a result thereof and another that the woven fabric belt is thicker at the junction so that it is possibly not suited for certain purposes of utilization or is at least subjected to increased wear which in turn reduces the durability of the woven fabric belt.
AT 402 516 describes a woven fabric belt device of the type mentioned herein above that overcomes the above drawbacks. A number of certain longitudinal yarns is thereby removed from the fabric along a section assigned to the end of the woven fabric belt and the removed sections of these longitudinal yarns are arranged, at least in sections, above and/or underneath the connecting device of the woven fabric belt so as to rest thereon, thus forming a protective layer for this connecting device.
The disadvantage of this device is that, when the woven fabric belt device is used under certain conditions, one or several longitudinal yarns are lifted from the woven fabric belt and bent. The yarns may thereby be threaded into the connecting device, damaging the latter as a result thereof.